Who are some famous American women?

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Famous American women include Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Marian Wright Edelman. Both Ginsburg and Edelman have broken barriers throughout their careers, including educational firsts, gender-bias and racial roadblocks, to become two of the most accomplished, educated and powerful women in the history of the United States.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, as of 2015. Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 15, 1933, under the given name Joan Ruth Bader. Ginsburg attended James Madison High School, where she was a student of high honor, earning herself a full scholarship to Cornell University. Following her graduation from Cornell, Ginsburg attended Harvard University School of Law, as well as Columbia University School of Law, and won a place on the Law Review, where she was the only person to be listed at both Harvard and Columbia. Ginsburg graduated from Columbia with the highest grades in the history of the Columbia School of Law.

Marian Wright Edelman is most commonly known as the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, the leading advocacy group for children in the United States, and has spent the majority of her life helping youth and families across the country. She attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and became involved with the civil rights movement, which inspired her to study law. Following her graduation from Spelman, Edelman attended Yale Law School, graduating in 1963. Edelman began working for the NAACP Legal and Defense fund in New York before moving to Mississippi, where she became the first African-American woman admitted to the bar. In the year 2000, President Bill Clinton presented Edelman with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor.